Well, it appears that our gaming brethren down Australia way will be able to enjoy Valve’s upcoming zombified sequel Left 4 Dead 2 when the game is released later next month. Of course, because of Australia’s ridiculous censorship laws, which resulted in the game being denied classification last month, it won’t be the same L4D2 that the rest of us will be getting.

As Gamasutrareports, Valve and EA were forced to take a bloodied axe to the game’s violence, and the results aren’t pretty. According to Australia’s classification board’s report, “No wound detail is shown and the implicitly dead bodies and blood splatter disappear as they touch the ground.” In addition, “The game no longer contains pictures of decapitation, dismemberment, wound detail or piles of bodies lying about the environment."

EA also resubmitted the original version of the game, the one that was rejected a few weeks back, and as EA spokesman Cameron Jenkins told Australia’s News.com, “We are waiting until we get the results back from the resubmitted full version, just in case it gets classified after working with the OFLC, we would much prefer to release that one.”

Interestingly, Valve’s Gabe Newell told Kotaku that if the edited version of the game comes out and the unedited version is then approved, Australian gamers will receive a free patch (no word on how much the patch would cost for Xbox 360 players, but I don’t really see how Microsoft could justify charging for it) that will unlock the original version of the game. The Australian Classification Board is expected to hand down its decision on Valve’s appeal on October 22nd.

Australian readers: What’s the chatter been like during this whole Left 4 Dead 2 business? Everyone: Do you think Microsoft will actually force Valve to charge 360 players for a censorship patch should one be released?